Prices dip in dairy auction - third fall in four sales

Prices of dairy products fell in the first sale on Fonterra Cooperative Group’s GlobalDairyTrade platform for 2012. Photo / Alan Gibson.

Prices of dairy products sold on Fonterra s GlobalDairyTrade platform fell for the third time in four sales with declines for all six product types on offer.

The GDT-TWI Price Index fell 0.9 per cent from the last sale a fortnight ago. The average winning price across all products dropped to US$3,666 per metric tonne.

See more details of the auction here.

The price of whole milk powder fell 0.9 per cent to US$3,533. Whole milk powder typically accounts for more than half the product sold on the platform.

A total of 28,011 metric tonnes of product was sold, down from 31,026 tonnes in the previous auction.

Skim milk powder fell 0.5 per cent to US$3,296 a metric tonne. Anhydrous milk fat dropped 3.5 per cent to US$3,942 a tonne and cheddar declined 1.1 per cent to US$3,640 a tonne.

Milk protein concentrate fell 4.9 per cent to US$5,569 a tonne and rennet casein dropped 4.3 per cent to US$7,715 a tonne.

There were 118 winning bidders from a total 155 participants across 12 rounds at the latest sale. The number of qualified bidders increased to 558 from 533 at the last sale two weeks ago.